Plaid Cymru are to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of the party’s Maenclochog branch with a special evening of celebration on Thursday, 27 April (at 7:30pm in Maenclochog community hall).

The branch was established in the wake of the famous Carmarthen by-election in July 1966 when Gwynfor Evans captured Plaid’s first-ever seat in Westminster.

The evening will recall those events, but also look forward to the new challenges facing Pembrokeshire and Wales in the 21st century, said Hefin Wyn, who will be contesting a seat on the county council in the elections on 4 May.

“We need to safeguard what we have in the face of torrid cuts forced on local government”, said Mr Wyn. “In particular, Plaid councillors will scrutinize the workings of Pembrokeshire County Council – Plaid council members backed every attempt to discipline the former Chief Executive and opposed ...

In this Easter Rising centenary year, Wales has focussed on Frongoch concentration camp. However, there’s a second connection between the two nations. This shines light on how Labour reacted to the Rising, one which fixed the narrative of the Welsh Nationalist Party on both Ireland and Labour for decades. In April 1916, Jack White came on a fortnight’s mission to Glamorgan to save James Connolly from execution. He failed; Connolly was shot the morning White was arrested.

The former leader of the Scottish National Party Gordon Wilson died recently, aged 79. Gordon was a great friend of Wales. Plaid Cymru extends its sympathy to his widow Edith and the family, and to our friends in Scotland and beyond who will mourn his passing. His friend and former fellow MP Dafydd Wigley has made this special tribute.

Gordon Wilson, SNP – a tribute by Dafydd Wigley

Gordon was a great friend of Wales and a totally committed nationalist. We had met in the 1965 Plaid Cymru summer school in Machynlleth when he was National Secretary of the SNP, and he visited Wales on many occasions. We were both elected to Westminster in February 1974 and were colleagues during the fraught days of the 1978 Devolution Acts and the 1979 Referenda when the iniquitous 40% rule prevented Scotland from getting their ...

The Plaid Cymru History Society is pleased to publish an extended version of the 2017 Spring Conference lecture delivered on Friday 3 March by D. Hywel Davies.

Entitled ‘DJ and Noëlle: Shaping the Blaid’, the lecture examines the role of Dr DJ Davies and Dr Noëlle Davies, who both exerted a strong influence on the development of Plaid Cymru.

Hywel Davies graduated in International Politics at University College, Aberystwyth and was a Research Student at University College, Cardiff. He is a former editor of the Merthyr Express and was also a television journalist and producer/director with HTV/ITV Wales and Nant Films. His book ‘The Welsh Nationalist Party, 1925-1945: A Call to Nationhood’ remains a classic text on the foundation and early decades of Plaid Cymru.

‘DJ and Noëlle: Shaping the Blaid’ – by Hywel Davies. A lecture to the Plaid Cymru History Society – ...

Councillor Michael Williams, Tenby represents the Tenby North ward on the council and leads a determined group of Plaid Cymru members of Pembrokeshire County Council. In this conversation with Plaid History Chairman Dafydd Williams he describes how his life changed after he was persuaded to stand as a Plaid Cymru candidate by the late Wynne Samuel.

It is time for Saunders Lewis, as one of the greatest leaders of Wales’ national movement, to receive the recognition he is due, according to another former president of Plaid Cymru, Dafydd Wigley.

The Plaid Cymru History Society is pleased to publish in its entirety the major lecture delivered by Dafydd Wigley under the title ‘Saunders Lewis, Plaid Cymru and Europe’. The lecture, which took place in Penarth on Thursday, 19 November 2015 followed the unveiling of a blue plaque on the house in Westbourne Road where he spent a third of his life.

Dafydd Wigley discusses Saunders Lewis’ vision of the rightful place of Wales in Europe; and examines his social philosophy – especially his call to distribute ownership of natural resources among the people so that neither the state, nor an individual nor a group of individuals, can oppress the families of the country economically. How on earth therefore can ...